Thanks to the Sanctuary CZ crew for their hardwork and for inviting me to be part of the PGT , all the bands and DJ’s and everyone who came along making it a great event and shook their boots on the dance floor 😉

The 21st June will mark the 70th anniversary, when Columbia records held a press conference at Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, to announce the arrival of the ‘Long Playing Microgroove Record’ – the LP to You and me. The LP offered 25 mins play per side of a 12 inch record five or six times as much as one of the then fashionable 78-rpm shellac disks. If you dropped a 78 it usually shattered and it had a lot of audible scratching when played whereas the new LP were made of vinylite, nonbreakable and silent-surfaced.

The first microgroove LP pressing released was Columbia ML4001, the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E Minor with soloist Nathan Milstein, and Bruno Walter conducting The Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra Of New York

Another factor which helped was the introduction magnetic tape for recording and editing following it’s discovery in Germany during the last days of the war and like the rocket technology it was liberated and used to good effect by America. A year after the LP came out the 7 inch came out. After 10 years the LP only accounted for 25% of record sales, with 7 inch record 73%, totally replacing the 78 which only had 2% of record sales in the USA. Jukeboxes were at their peak in the 1950’s and were now mainly filled with 7 inch records. The LP only exploded in the 60’s due to the further expansion recording time on an album and the explosion English-language popular music. Sales started to decline in the late 70’s due to the appearance of compact cassettes.

On the LP’s 40th anniversary it was widely predicted that the compact disc would totally replace vinyl albums. This failed to happen due to audiophiles, DJs, and fans of indie music. Fans of music are still looking to collect old vinyl, vinyl reissues or to collect vinyl versions of new albums when the opportunity presents itself. Record store day in the UK also generates some interest in vinyl, but it’s still the smaller bands and labels that are igniting the demand for vinyl, so it’s unlikely Vinyl will ever disappear as long as there is an active music scenes for new bands to flourish in.

The 70 albums pictured are random selection from my vinyl LP collection – alphabetical ordered as that’s how they are stored ( I didn’t always buy vinyl, sometimes tapes for covenience but on occasions they would snap or unravel ;/, I also borrowed records from friends and taped them) My music collection is a mix of vinyl, tapes, CD’s and MP3’s. I guess if the Japanese had continued to develop the laser to play vinyl records which removed the scratches in the sound, I would still be mainly using vinyl. The one event that made me switch to CD’s was when I went to get Killing Joke’s “Millenium” single on 12″. The copy I bought from Jumbo records in Leeds had a cigarette burn in the vinyl. When I took it back all further 18 copies all had the same burn mark . So I had buy it on CD. It’s easier to transport, store and use CD’s and MP3’s as a DJ.

Only just into 2018 and I could be wrong but I think have just witnessed the most exciting new band to debut in the UK this year. It’s the measure of a great band that you turn up expecting a good show but you end being blown away by the live performance. In the 80’s in regularly used to be case.
Sextile are very much enthused by the spirit of the the 80’s but give it a 21st century upgrade.
The live fusion of stand up drumming, korg synths and guitars and the intense vocals will blow you away! So much so you won’t realise they don’t have a bass player but with great layers of synths they don’t need one and it makes a positive difference.
Even a few technical problems doesn’t derail the pulsation of their live performance.

The live set is mainly a mix of their first album ‘A Thousand Hands’ and their current release ‘Albeit Living’

Stand out tracks like One Of These is like the perfect fusion between DAF/Absolute Body Control and The Jesus and Mary Chain Love it!

Who Killed Six I am sure if Lux from The Cramps heard this he would be grooving in his grave. Epic!

Ripped has a hint of A Flock Of Seagulls in the intro before Crampslike guitars crash in. Synths also remind me of A Crash Course In Science wow! Floored reminds me of early New Order and The Human League with a Sextile twist. Love it!

Sextile Live Record Junkie Sheffield 19th Jan 2018

Sterilized if The Cramps had used a synth it would have been as good as this. Epic!

Crisis a brilliant cramps synth fusion!

Sextile based on these two live shows can only get bigger. So get off your arse and go see them on tour now. Life’s too short to miss such great live gigs!

Great to see so many new faces what a hot night in Darkland’s sauna 😉 Thanks to everyone who travelled from afar and for coming down and making it a great night 😉 We return next month on Sat 8th April 9pm till 1am. We look forward see you all and to set a new temperature record on the dancefloor 😉